SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Connecticut Knows The Drill for Regional

Never had these words been chanted for a Connecticut men's basketball team, along with the overturning of a water bucket, a football ritual of dubious merit on hardwood floors.

These guys are amateurs at celebrating a trip to the Final Four, but anything goes when a team, a university, a region, a veritable wandering people of gloomy history, finally gets to that transient holy land. This public exuberance took place yesterday as Connecticut held off Gonzaga,

67-62, in the West Regional final.

Having lost three regional finals in nine previous seasons, the Huskies players and their long-suffering fans, a whole section's worth right behind the bench, undoubtedly knew that a loss to Gonzaga would have been the worst jolt ever in their collective history of failed missions.

Other modest so-called programs have earned their way into the Final Four for the first time, but Gonzaga has a nice ''Hoosiers'' ring to it, a team from eastern Washington with earnest players and a hot young coach who was born into his profession. These outsiders remained smart and tough against a bigger outfit with more firepower.

Everybody talks about parity in college basketball, how early defection to the professional league and a drop in scholarships from 15 to 13 have brought a lot of schools a level closer in talent, but Connecticut knew that a loss to Gonzaga would have been treated as an upset for the ages.

The Connecticut players took that chance, defying the oldest sports cliche of all, the one about playing games one at a time.

''One of our guys in the locker room said -- and I'm not going to name names -- that we were trying to get to the Final Four,'' said Ricky Moore, the co-captain, who played terrific defense yesterday and contributed a crucial twisting basket.

Moore had told his teammate that Connecticut was aiming for the national championship, not just a trip to the Final Four. The Huskies have been paying for the terrible crime of mere excellence. Under Jim Calhoun, the big, hearty coach who arrived in 1986-87, the Huskies have now won 302 games and lost 120, a rate of .716.

Yet Connecticut had been stereotyped as a disappointing basketball school because it had not reached the Final Four while schools like Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Seton Hall, Massachusetts and Minnesota managed to get there once each in the past decade.

Asked about his biggest disappointment, Calhoun has replied, ''The impression that we are not successful.'' In college basketball, there is the perception that going to the Final Four is a validation of a program, quite different from the professional football perception that the team that loses the Super Bowl is indeed a blatant loser.

''You mean, you want to go back to the old days?'' Calhoun blusters sometimes, a reminder of previous years when Connecticut was quite pleased to play a second game in the Big East tournament.

A few days ago, Calhoun was asked if he had learned anything over the years, and he rattled off his lessons:

''Don't let Christian Laettner into the game. Make all your foul shots. Don't go into overtime. Don't get into a shootout with U.C.L.A. And by the way, don't go to Greensboro if you get a chance.''

Connecticut fans know the drill. In the 1990 regional final in the Meadowlands, Laettner of Duke sank a jumper to kill Connecticut. In the 1991 regional semifinal, Duke whacked Connecticut by 14. In 1994, Donyell Marshall sleepwalked through a second-round loss to Florida. In 1995, U.C.L.A. outran Connecticut, 102-96, in the West final. In 1996 there was a third-round loss to Mississippi State. And last year the Huskies went to Greensboro -- a short hop from the North Carolina campus -- and lost to the Tar Heels by 11 in the regional final.

''I ask the question sometimes whether the Chicago Bulls would have won six championships if they had a one-loss-and-out tournament,'' Calhoun mused the other day.

And what was his answer? Not necessarily.

''Maybe they'd play the A-game every time out, or maybe they wouldn't,'' Calhoun said. ''That's what makes this all the more exciting -- great for the fans, great for the kids.''

So, the national college tournament is more fun than the N.B.A. championships?

'' 'Fun' is not how I'd describe it,'' Calhoun replied.

The fun was just sinking in yesterday. Calhoun said: ''I'm not a better coach now than I was a few more hours ago. I'm more tired. I'm wet. But I feel so good for all the kids who came here over the years.'' He added, ''I love every one of them, and this is for them.''

Still drenched from his impromptu shower, he said, ''Personally, I feared that people would put pressure on Jim Calhoun never going to the Final Four. Nope. Connecticut is going to the Final Four. I'm just here for the ride.''

On Friday Calhoun had said, ''We're playing 40 minutes to punch our ticket to the Final Four.'' Now he is on that train, with the words ''Final Four! Final Four! Final Four!'' echoing in his ears.